June 1, 1864---The Battle of Cold Harbor (Day Two)

JUNE 1, 1864:             

The Battle of Cold Harbor   (Day Two):            

The Confederacy appears to be in deep trouble. For the last month, The Army of Northern Virginia has been forced to give ground steadily as Ulysses S. Grant and The Army of The Potomac have pressed southward in the face of determined resistance. Battle after battle has been fought. Soldiers in blue seem to appear from a well-nigh inexhaustible source. The Confederacy has no such source. In just a single month of intensely concentrated combat, Grant has managed to advance from the Rapidan River to the outskirts of Richmond, a distance of 60 critical miles.

Although most historians hold that most of the many individual battles of Grant’s Overland Campaign were tactically inconclusive, Grant has displayed strategic genius. By simply pressing forward regardless of the intransigence of the enemy, he has forced Robert E. Lee to, time and again, take up blocking positions in an attempt to keep Grant from the gates of Richmond.

As of the morning of June 1, 1864, Lee’s blocking maneuvers have been a failure. Although he has been able to inflict fearsome casualties on the Union Army, this has not deterred Grant from moving forward. As the sun rises, Union troops are in control of the town of Old Cold Harbor, just ten miles from Jefferson Davis’ desk.

Lee’s only advantage is speed, and today he uses it. The Union Army is scattered hither, thither, and yon over a forty mile front twenty five miles deep stretching from the North Anna River to the Chickahominy River. Lee knows it will take time --- a precious day at least --- for the Federals to organize and move in force.

Lee’s smaller army can maneuver faster, and today he puts out the call. His men abandon their positions and race toward greater Richmond.  In the meantime, Lee sends what infantry and cavalry units he already has toward Old Cold Harbor. Lee knows that Union troops are there, and he is determined to retake the crossroads.

Lee orders an attack shortly after dawn, hoping to overwhelm the small Union force at Old Cold Harbor before more Northern troops can arrive. This plan goes awry when the Commander of the assault force, Colonel Lawrence Keitt of South Carolina is killed early in the battle. Keitt’s green 20th South Carolina regiment panics. The inexperienced men in the vanguard beat a frantic retreat. The panic spreads, and the Confederates run off, allowing Sheridan's troops to hold the crossroads. The Union sustains 2,200 casualties, the Confederacy 1,800.

Lee eventually masters his men, and they dig in, just as they have been doing throughout the Campaign. Grant decides that he does not have enough men on hand to overcome an entrenched enemy, and so he decides to wait for the bulk of The Army of The Potomac to arrive before renewing the attack. The delay proves costly. Lee’s forces arrive first.

May 31, 1864---The Battle of Cold Harbor (Day One)

MAY 31, 1864:             

The Battle of Cold Harbor  (Day One):  

 

Union troops enter the town of Old Cold Harbor and occupy it. For the first time since the Peninsula Campaign of the Spring and Summer of 1862, the Union can hear the church bells of Richmond. Richmond’s outskirts lie six miles south. The city center lies only ten miles away. The war may, if all goes well for the Union, end in early June. 

May 30, 1864---The Battle of Crump's Creek; The Battle of Shady Grove Road; The Battle of Old Church; The Battle of Bethesda Church

MAY 30, 1864:            

The Battle of Crump’s Creek:           

As Union units try to swing around the Confederate flank, they become bogged down in the wetlands of Crump’s Creek. A vicious firefight breaks out between the mired Union troops and Confederate sharpshooters who inflict heavy casualties on the stuck men. 

The Battle of Shady Grove Road:      

Union troops moving toward the town of Hanover Court House engage in battle with Confederate pickets sent to delay and harass them. After a violent exchange, the pickets are killed or driven off, but they have successfully delayed the Union advance for the day. 

The Battle of Old Church (The Battle of Matadequin Creek):         

 By this point in the greater battle of Topopotomoy Creek, Union units are fighting everywhere between the North Anna River and the Chickahominy River, facing off with determined Confederate resistance. The Old Church is just 1.5 miles away from, and thus within easy reach of the crossroads of Old Cold Harbor, a town which is just six miles from Richmond. Robert E. Lee knows that if the Union can take Old Cold Harbor it can essentially walk into Richmond in a day, and so he orders crack troops to hold the line at Matadequin Creek. Although the Rebels fight the Union infantry to a standstill, Union cavalry under General George Armstrong Custer overrun the Confederate positions along the creek, opening the road to Old Cold Harbor.    

 

The Battle of Bethesda Church:        

Not far from the Old Church, Union troops force their way south of Matadequin Creek toward Beulah Church. By the end of the day, Old Cold Harbor is in the grip of two Union pincers just waiting to close. 

May 29, 1864: The Battle of Hanovertown

MAY 29, 1864:           

The Battle of Hanovertown:              

Violent combat continues in the vicinity of Topopotomoy Creek. Fighting rages around the Shelton farmstead named “Rural Plains” in Hanovertown, once the home of American Patriot Patrick Henry. Although both sides try to spare the house, it bears scars of the battle to this day. 

May 28, 1864: About Major Pauline Cushman; The Battle of Haw's Shop; The Battle of Totopotomoy Creek; The Battle of Dallas, Georgia

MAY 28, 1864:            

As The Army of The Potomac moves around the right flank of The Army of Northern Virginia, Marse Robert orders his men into action to break Grant’s forward momentum. The result is a string of bloody battles: 

The Battle of Haw’s Shop (The Battle of Enon Church): 

General Wade Hampton C.S.A. and his cavalry, on a reconnaissance in force to discover Union movements, run into a Union cavalry brigade under General Philip Sheridan engaged in the same task. A bloody seven hour battle develops. Early in the battle, Wade Hampton, seeing that his men outnumber the Union men, exclaims famously, “We’ve got them right where we want them!” Close quarter battle occurs between Confederate and Union dismounted cavalry that takes lives and spills blood, but gives neither side an advantage. Both sides dig in to fixed battle lines. Late in the day, the Confederate cavalry are pushed back from the vicinity of Haw’s Shop by Union cavalry under the command of George Armstrong Custer. However, both sides claim victory, Sheridan because he drove Hampton from the field and Hampton because he disrupted Sheridan’s force. The Battle of Haw’s Shop was the second bloodiest cavalry battle in the war (although it was mostly fought by unhorsed men), and cost each side roughly 400 men. 

The Battle of Totopotomoy Creek :

As the Battle of Haw’s Shop goes on not far away, Grant’s forces engage Lee’s along Totopotomoy Creek. Lee presumes correctly that this is the main body trying to swing around his flank, and orders his men to contest the ground fiercely. General Jubal Early C.S.A.’s line crashes headlong into Winfield Scott Hancock U.S.A.’s line. Both sides take heavy casualties. 750 Federal soldiers are killed (there are few wounded), while the Confederacy loses 1,300 men (400 killed, a large percentage officers).

The fighting along this line is so intense that the two sides actually salute each other for their bravery while in battle. One Union man was to write later:  

"The slaughter was so sickening that Major Hartshorne leaped to his feet and called upon his assailants to surrender. Some hundreds did so. Rebels or no rebels, their behavior and bearing during the charge had won the admiration of their captors, who did not hesitate to express it." 

Lieutenant C.B. Christian C.S.A., wrote to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, describing the battle in some detail. He began: 

Sir,—This was the bloodiest fight of our Civil War considering the number engaged on our side. The per cent. in killed and wounded was three times as great as that of the French at the battle of Waterloo. The loss of officers was full ninety per cent. of all engaged (mostly killed).

Another surviving Virginian confirmed this in his own reminiscences: "Our line melted away as if by magic. Every brigade, staff and field officer was cut down, (mostly killed outright) in an incredibly short time." 

As various Union units maneuver in the general area they run into Confederate units. The two sides attack each other with abandon. Ongoing battles develop at Crump’s Creek, Shady Grove Road, and Hanovertown, that last the next several days.

The Battle of Dallas, Georgia:

As Lee and Grant engage ever nearer Richmond, Sherman and Johnston engage ever nearer Atlanta. A Confederate “test” of Sherman’s line is repulsed with heavy casualties at the town of Dallas, Georgia. 

 

On this day, The New York Times reports the story of Major Pauline Cushman, a Federal Scout and Spy who penetrated the Headquarters of General Braxton Bragg and stole a set of his General Orders. The news story reads in part: 

Among the women of America who have made themselves famous since the opening of the rebellion, few have suffered more or rendered more service to the Federal cause than Miss Maj. PAULINE CUSHMAN, the female scout and spy. At the commencement of hostilities she resided in Cleveland, Ohio, and was quite well known as a clever actress . . .

She was [ ] employed by Gen. ROSECRANS, and was for many months with the Army of the Cumberland. She visited the rebel lines time after time . . . She was twice suspected of being a spy, and taken prisoner, but managed to escape . . .

At last, however, she was not so fortunate. After our forces had capture[d] Nashville, Maj. CUSHMAN made a scout towards Shelbyville to obtain information on the strength and position of the enemy, and while returning to Nashville, was captured on the Hardin pike, eleven miles from the latter city. She was placed on a horse, and in charge of two scouts, was being taken to Spring Hill, the headquarters of FORREST . . .

Knowing that her guards had important papers for Gen. BRAGG, the quick-witted spy seized the fact and schemed to use it to her advantage . . .

Seeing an old negro, who appeared to commiserate her unfortunate plight, she watched her opportunity and placed $10 . . . in his hand, saying: "run up the road, Uncle, and come back in a few minutes, telling us that four hundred Federals are coming down the street." The faithful negro obeyed the order literally, and soon came back in the greatest excitement, telling the story . . . saying: "Massa, dey's cumin, sure nuff; de Lord help us, dey is cumin" . . . 

The scouts at this believed his story, mounted their horses, and "skedaddled" for the woods. Miss CUSHMAN, seizing a pistol belonging to a wounded solider [sic] in the house, also mounted her horse and fled towards Franklin. She travelled through the rain, and, after nightfall, lost her way. Soon came the challenge of a picket, "Who comes there?" Thinking she had reached the rebel line, she said: "A friend of JEFF. DAVIS." "All right," was the reply, "advance and give the countersign." . . . She presented the countersign in the shape of a canteen of whisky. She passed five pickets in this way, but the sixth and last was obdurate . . .

She was taken to the headquarters of FORREST and he sent her, after a critical examination, to Gen. BRAGG. Nothing could be found against her until a secesh woman stole her garters, under the inner sole of which were found [the] important documents which clearly proved her to be a spy . . .

She was tried and condemned to be executed as a spy  [but was suffering from an illness that delayed her execution] . . .

She finally, after lying in prison three months, sent for Gen. BRAGG, and asked him if he had no mercy. She received from him the comforting assurance that he should make an example of her, and that he should hang her as soon as she got well enough to be hung decently . . .

While in this state of suspense, the grand army of ROSECRANS commenced its forward movement, and one fine day the rebel town where she wos [sic] imprisoned was surprised and captured, and the heroine of this tale was, to her great joy, released.